Sony Announces PS4 at press event in New York - Report by Andy Urquhart

As expected Sony unveiled the Playstation 4 at a press event in New York this evening and live streamed the event to aglobal audience. Here we talk you through everything you need to know about the very latest in next generation gaming.

First up we had a nicely put together video full of all the buzz words in gaming, followed by Andrew House to tell us abouthow they are making ease of access to gaming a priority. He then proceeded to tell us about how PS content will be expanded to tablets and smartphones, and that they would talk about the Vita later on.

He then allowed the screen to do the talking to announce the PS4 confirming that the event was indeed to announce the Playstation 4 (after all the hype and rumours that was abundantly clear already).

He then handed over to another developer whose named escapes me sadly due to the jumpy live feed and he went to totell us about what they want to achieve with the PS4: easy access to games, and next geneneration experience, and he revealed that Sony has been speaking to developers while developing the console in order to make it easier to make games for.

PS4 will be able to suspend/resume playing without boot up, meaning no more loading screens! This also means that ifyou have a power cut the console will not need to spend 8 hours rechecking it’s hard drive.PS4 can also download and upload in the background, digital titles can be played while downloading, as soon as you start downloading you will be able to play the game.Always on video compression and decompression allows seamless uploading of a recording of gameplay as you play,which you can share with friends and online around the world.

Some social gaming aspects were also confirmed including the ability to chat live while you play,trophies were confirmed via images PS4 will interact heavily with existing social networks (ie Facebook, twitter etc)Integrated PS4 apps will be usable with smartphones and tablets as well as the Vita.Personalization system will get to know you, meaning that your PS4 system will learn what you like and be able to predictthe next game you will purchase.

He announced the fastest most powerful gaming network in the world. The network will learn what you like, and have freestreaming demos for every game on the PS4 store (likely to be timed demos, ie 1 hour trials) and introduced the moto“buy only what you love” the network will be partnered with Facebook and ustream.It will be a social gaming network with meaning and will be dedicated to games. Spectating and broadcasting gameplaylive to your friends confirmed and he also announced that friends can interact with your game by commenting to the screen. A live assist will also be available from friends where they can give you items like medipacks etc and assistancevia their own PS4 if you should require it. All content (PS1, 2, and 3 games anyway) will be able to be accessed oneverything eventually (suspect this could take a couple of years to get fully operational).

Second screen remote play built into PS4, Playstation Vita is described as the perfect companion device for PS4, and remote play is confirmed for all PS4 games enabling the Vita to function like the Wii U tablet does with the Wii U and be able to play your big screen game on the Vita when the TV is in use by another device (it’s unclear at this point if the PS4must be on to do this). Netflix, Playstation Plus, Hulu, NHL, MLB, Crackle, and more were all confirmed to be available onthe network.

Some developers then showed some physics demos and said a bewildering amount of buzzwords

And this was then followed up by the announcement of several new game engines.

David Cage from Quantic Dream (Heavy Rain developers) then showed off their new engine which looks almost exactlylike real life!

Yoshinori Ono from Capcom talked about Capcom’s previous games and announce Code Name Phanta Ray engineand talked briefly about it.

Yoshihisa Hashimoto from Square Enix took to the stage to show off another engine called Luminous Studios running onPS4. They showed a video of the previously shown tech demo demonstrating the new engine, which again looks incredible but we would much rather see something new.

Controller

Thankfully Sony decided not to go down the route of the boomerang this time!The controller was confirmed as the Dual Shock 4 and the following features were all Rumble, touch pad on front, share, headphone jack, light bar to identify players, vita style dpad, improved slightly concave thumbsticks, second peripheralstereo camera depth sensor (looks like a kinect!). Move Support confirmed and shown off manipulating 3D sculptures and creating a world which looked very much like Minecraft made of clay. The move controller combined with MediaMolecule’s sculpting tool makes 3D sculpting easy for beginners and deep for experts. A video was also shown with 2 guys controlling an old man and a little girl dancing around a pink guitar. Then the man picked up the guitar and they started playing a gig using the move controllers to play drums and keyboard and guitar. Not quite sure how this will work in practice but it certainly looked fun.

Playstation Plus was confirmed but no details given.

Dates & Price Points

The teasing date of Coming Holiday 2013 was shown off but nothing else was forthcoming.

Games

On top of the console announcement Sony also revealed a few games and showed off some trailers and footage, some expected, some complete surprises!

Knack

A new IP, 3D platformer style game, looks interesting but too early to judge any further.

Killzone Shadow Fall

Showed off some footage from it the gameplay looks like a cut scene, wow! Seriously impressive graphics in theteaser trailer.

Driveclub

Showed a teaser trailer, driving game all about “driving the best cars in the world in the best locations in the world”.Looks very nice but would have preferred a new Gran Turismo.

Infamous Second Sun by Sucker Punch exclusive to PS4

Another stunning teaser trailer showcase the graphical capabilities of the PS4.

The Witness

Open world game, compact world (no big open spaces), no padded play time, no filler, puzzle game, timed exclusivefor the initial release window. Teaser trailer shows off a stunning world populated by puzzles.

Deep Down

Shown off with a trailer with more incredibly life like graphics this time a fantasy style 3rd person action adventure gamefighting dragons and running around. Think 3rd person Skyrim.

A Final Fantasy game was confirmed but the teasing see you at E3 bombshell was sadly dropped along with this announcement.

Destiny

Bungie are bringing Destiny to PS4 and showed off some in game footage, of this stunning looking game we got a look at earlier this week. Confirmed for PS4 and PS3, PS will get exclusive content.

Watch Dogs

Ubisoft founder Yves Guilemot came on to talk about their plans for games for the PS4 and announced a thatWatch Dogs (a previously announced game) is coming to PS4 and showed off a trailer which reminded me a lot of the TV show Person Of Interest. It is a 3rd person action game with hacking elements. Showed off a previously shown trailer running on the PS4.

Diablo 3

Blizzard announced that they have entered a strategic partnership to take over the world! Hopefully not literally, heannounced Diablo 3 for both PS3 and PS4.

A ton of information was streamed at us but sadly no price point, firm release date or even what the actual console lookslike coupled with the lack of any of the expected game announcements leaves me slightly underwhelmed after all the hype. But we will see everything in time and hopefully the game line up will improve significantly before launch!

I for one am happy to preorder the PS4 based on the tech specs, controller and functionality of the console alone, which (at this point) look unparalleled.